🚀 go-pugleaf

carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick) writes:

>Er, the amount of energy that escapes is exactly the amount of energy you
>started with.  Law of conservation of energy comes into play.  All the energy
>from the flywheel will have been converted into these other forms, as you point
>out.  That doesn't mean we can ignore it.  True, we're not likely to be talking
>about hypersonic bits of the flywheel.  But enough energy to move that vehicle
>on the order of 100 miles at freeway speeds is still around there someplace. 
>It didn't just vanish.  And that's a LOT of energy.  And it got dumped FAST.

>In other words:  BOOM!

>Unless you wrap the flywheel in a massive enough container that it can absorb
>all that energy without vaporizing, you're going to have an explosion.

I would design a housing of Kevlar or Spectra woven around a thin lead
alloy lining. The lead would prevent small particles from penetrating the
weave by distributing the force over an area larger than the mean cell
size of the fabric.  The weave would contain any larger particles so that
the energy would be dissipated within the housing by all the mechanisms
mentioned before, as well as a considerable portion from particulate
collisions within the housing.  The housing would be relatively light
and could be formed into fairly complex shapes. Cost would not be prohibitive
, probably on the order of $300, with economies of scale.

David Basiji
UW Bioengineering
NeRD #3762